Detect Windows 8.1 in Python?

Question

We've got a script that uses the platform module to detect OS version of our various clients.

Looking through the source for platform.py, I can see that on Windows systems, it's using sys.getwindowsverion(). Unfortunately, on Windows 8.1 systems, that particular function reports:

>>> sys.getwindowsversion()
sys.getwindowsversion(major=6, minor=2, build=9200, platform=2, service_pack='')

Windows 8.1 is 6.3.9600:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>ver

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]

So, I realize I could write some extra logic around my call to platform.release(), and if that returns 8, do a secondary check and try to run ver, but that seems slightly convoluted.

Does anyone know of a better way?

Running ActivePython 2.7.2.5 in case that matters . . .

Answer 1

Microsoft changed the way that the version function behave. See this page for some more information.

The way that I worked around the problem is to use ctypes and a kernel mode function, RtlGetVersion. Despite this being a kernel mode function it can be called from user mode just fine. I've tried this on many versions of Windows and not had an issue.

import ctypes

class OSVERSIONINFOEXW(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [('dwOSVersionInfoSize', ctypes.c_ulong),
                ('dwMajorVersion', ctypes.c_ulong),
                ('dwMinorVersion', ctypes.c_ulong),
                ('dwBuildNumber', ctypes.c_ulong),
                ('dwPlatformId', ctypes.c_ulong),
                ('szCSDVersion', ctypes.c_wchar*128),
                ('wServicePackMajor', ctypes.c_ushort),
                ('wServicePackMinor', ctypes.c_ushort),
                ('wSuiteMask', ctypes.c_ushort),
                ('wProductType', ctypes.c_byte),
                ('wReserved', ctypes.c_byte)]

def get_os_version():
    """
    Get's the OS major and minor versions.  Returns a tuple of
    (OS_MAJOR, OS_MINOR).
    """
    os_version = OSVERSIONINFOEXW()
    os_version.dwOSVersionInfoSize = ctypes.sizeof(os_version)
    retcode = ctypes.windll.Ntdll.RtlGetVersion(ctypes.byref(os_version))
    if retcode != 0:
        raise Exception("Failed to get OS version")

    return os_version.dwMajorVersion, os_version.dwMinorVersion

Answer 2

You can simple get it from registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion there you have value name CurrentVersion And the Data in Windows 8.1 will be 6.3 It will work an any windows platform